Police recover three-day-old baby sold for N2million

The police in Delta State, South-south Nigeria, have arrested two female suspects for allegedly buying a three-day-old baby for N2 million.

The baby, a boy, has been recovered, the police spokesperson in the state, Bright Edafe said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday.

Mr Edafe, police superintendent, said the suspects, Tessi Ikechukwu and Lauretta Akomen, were arrested on Tuesday with the help of a tricycle rider.

The incident

According to the police, four women boarded the tricycle, but two alighted around the Effurun roundabout.

“One of the two women who alighted handed over a newborn baby boy to the women left in his tricycle, and he heard one of them saying the balance has been paid while saying that when they get to their destination, they should inform her.

“The tricycle rider smartly diverted the two women and the newborn baby to Ekpan Police Station,” the police said.

The police said one suspect, Akomen, 38, confessed to having bought the baby for N2 million from a traditional home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The police said the traditional home harbours teenage girls, gets men to impregnate them, and afterwards sells the babies to people interested in buying them.

The suspect also told the police how she was given a drug, which she took for some time to make her look pregnant.

She led operatives to the house of someone who acted as an agent between her and the traditional home.

Killing of kidnap suspect

Also, the police in Rivers said they have killed a kidnap and armed robbery suspect who terrorised Udu Local Government Area, Warri and its environs.

The police said the suspect was part of a syndicate responsible for a series of kidnappings within the Udu axis as well as the assassination of Eric Takerere, the son of Orhuwhorun traditional ruler, alongside two police escorts on 3 April 2021 at Effurun Sapele Road.

According to the police, the suspect, identified as Benson Oghenevwaire, 34, and his gang members engaged operatives in a gun battle when their hideout was raided on 27 September.

“During the gun duel, the police overpowered the suspects. Some of them escaped with various degrees of gunshot injuries while Mr Oghenevwaire was arrested with gunshot injuries.”

Mr Oghenevwaire died at Warri Central Hospital while receiving treatment, the police said, adding that arms and ammunition were recovered from the operation.